Musical door movement signal



April 1955 s. P. GARSON 2,705,936

I MUSICAL DOOR MOVEMENT SIGNAL Filed Feb. 23, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l FlG.

STANLEY R GARSON INVENTOR.

MYM

April 12, 1955 s. F. GARSON MUSICAL DOOR MGVEMENT SIGNAL 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 23, 1954 STAN LE? P.- GARSON INVENTOR.

United States Patent MUSICAL DOOR MOVEMENT SIGNAL Stanley P. Garson, Seattle, Wash. Application February 23, 1954, Serial No. 411,859 3 Claims. (Cl. 116-100) This present device relates to the general class of devices intended to signal the opening of a door and more particularly to give out a sustained musical signal formed by the blending of a number of harmonious musical tones. The device is arranged with tuning means for the individual wires forming the sound source so that certain of the pleasant musical chords can be produced. The signal is so arranged that it is a single unit which attaches entirely to the door without any actuating devices being attached to the door frame.

There are many uses for a device which will indicate the opening or closing, or movement, of a door, among which are the uses of such a device in a public, or semipublic shop, or in a home, especially Where small children are involved so that the mother will be advised of the movement of a child, for instance after he has had a nap. This present device is intended to signal the movement of a door which may be an interior door as well as an exterior one. Because of the construction of the device and the manner in which it is operated, it does not serve to advise of a caller who wishes admittance. It is advisable, however, that a repeated signal of this order should be one that would be pleasant to hear and which will not startle the person who is subjected to its repetitious sounding. This is in distinction to the ordinary buzzer or bell. In the past, a large number of devices have been produced to indicate the opening of a door. By that is meant the opening of a door which has been fully seated in its door frame and this type of signal depends on having one of the elements, either the sounding means, or the actuating means attached to the door and the other to the door frame. In other instances, the entire device is mounted on the door frame and an actuating arm extends down in the path of the door as it is being opened. In the present device, however, the entire unit is mounted on the door without any connection to the door frame. Consequently, the movement of the door from any position of rest, whether it is just ajar, or in the door frame, or opened a considerable amount, will be sufiicient to sound the signal.

The principal object of this present invention, therefore, is to provide a signaling device to be mounted in its entirety upon a door and which will produce a musical sound when the door is moved, either in opening or closing.

A further object of this invention is to provide in a single unitary structure a device with all its functional parts, which can be easily attached to a door and will be in a functional position without the need of carefully positioning the same on the door or with respect to the door frame.

A further object of this present invention is to provide a door movement signaling device wherein the musical tones produced by the device can be tuned to different frequencies or only one of the tone-producing wires may be used, or any number of a plurality of such strings may be used and tuned to the desired tone.

Further objects, advantages and capabilities will be apparent from the description and disclosure in the drawings, or may be comprehended or are inherent in the device.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating one manner mounting my door movement signal; Figure 2 is a face view, in elevation, showing the device illustrated in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view taken along the increased tone of this 2,705,936 Patented Apr. 12, 1955 line 33 of Figure 2 and showing the position of the strikers as they might occur while the device is sounding a signal;

Figure 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary perspective view, in elevation, illustrating the manner in which the pendulum cords are secured at the top of the device;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the construction of one of the wire tensioning keys, of which one is employed for each wire used.

Referring more particularly to the disclosure in the drawings, the numeral 10 designates generally the sounding board which forms the main frame or base on which the other elements of this device are mounted. Any suitable material may be employed for the construction of the sounding board and the general principles which apply to the making of a hollow resonant box for use as part of a stringed instrument, will normally be satisfactory. Wood has been the time-honored material and still has certain characteristics which appear to be more satisfactory than the newer inert materials such as plastic, nonresonant metals and the like which currently are quite commonly employed in the manufacture of stringed instruments and which could be employed in this construction. Throughout the present drawings wood structure has been illustrated. The resonance box 10 is framed on its four sides by frame members numbered 12, 13, 14 and 15 which are joined to form an enclosing frame for the device. To one edge of these pieces is secured the back 16 and to the other edges is secured the sounding board 18 which is provided with one or more air openings 20. The sounding box 10 is preferably secured as to door D by a plurality of nails or screws passing through openings 22, provided preferably in the four corners of the device.

Secured on the face, or sounding board side of the device is a plurality of musical strings, the size and character of which are determined by the same general characteristics desired as in any musical instrument; normally the higher the pitch desired, the lighter the wire or string, and for the lower tones a heavier Wire, or a wire-wound string, or wire such as are common on other string instruments. Any reasonable number of these wires may be employed, Four, as illustrated, produce a very satisfactory arrangement in that it makes it possible to create a wide range of chords. If, however, a person were accustomed to a mandolin or a zither, he might choose to have more than four strings and, in fact, these strings could be of the so-called double variety where two companion strings are placed in close proximity to each other as is common on quite a few instruments. The use of the double string in this device where the two closely spaced strings are tuned to the same pitch, gives a brilliant and particular string arrangement. The mounting of the strings follows the conventional arrangement in that one end of the string 24 is looped back on itself at 26 so that it may be looped over a convenient abutment as screw 28. It is then led over a strip of fretting material as 30 across the face of the sounding board and over a second fretting strip 32 and is finally passed through opening 34 in key member 36. Various forms of keys may be employedmost any of those used in musical instruments would be satisfactory. In the illustration, the key member is provided with a fine thread at 38 so that as the key is turned as by a wrench applied at 40, the thread tends to lock the key at the desired location in hole 42.

Secured to the upper margin of the sounding box espe' cially where member 14 re-enforces the same, is the pendulum anchor member 44. This member is preferably provided with a longitudinally disposed slot 46 and a plurality of kerfs as 48, one for each pendulum which is to be employed and, of course, it follows that there will be one pendulum for each of the strings 24 employed. The width of the kerf 48 is just sufiicient so that the pendulum cord 50 will be a snug fit therein to the end that when a figure-S knot is tied in the cord at 52, at such a point that the pendulum weight 54 will center on its appropriate string 24, the knot is then pulled down tight against anchor 44 and the knot then lies within groove 46. This keeps it out of the way and adds to the neatness of the device and further provides a secure arrangement for anchoring the cord 50 but still permits its ready replacement if such should be necessary. It is desired to bring out that the bottom of kerf 48 which forms the rest for cord 50 should be outwardly disposed from sounding board 18 a suificient amount so that the pendulum weight 54 will normally be hanging outwardly from the wire it is to co-act with. When so arranged, maximum response is obtained from the device during the opening of the door.

The pendulum weight 54 may take any desired form which may be preferable for decorative purposes, a weight in the form of a musical note, for instance, readily suggests itself. A very practical form of weight, however, is to employ a glass ball. Glass, because of its hardness, produces a very clear tone. Weights, of course, may be made of various metals and plastics. However, the softer materials produce weights that are somewhat lacking in brilliance.

My door signal is intended to be entirely mounted upon a door. Figure 1 shows one typical mounting. If however, the door has glass openings it may be necessary then to place the device on some solid portion of the door, it being desirable that the device itself be fixedly secured top and bottom to the door. I wish to point out that this unit is entirely self-maintained and there are no triggers, or arms, or latches that are dependent upon the movement of the door with respect to its enclosing frame. In use, as door D is for instance being opened or being moved in the opening direction, even though it may have been partially opened, the first action is to move the entire sounding board 10. The weights 54, however, are secured to the sounding board only through means of the flexible connectors 50 which are preferably cord although chain or wire might be so employed. As the doors open, the first action is for balls 54 to fall back due to their following the accepted laws of motion and thereby strike strings 24. This string being a musical one, has considerable resiliency and the effect of pressing the wire back toward the sounding board is followed by the reaction of throwing the ball away from the wire. This movement is usually accelerated and added to by the movement of the door. Consequently, the weights may move outwardly considerably from the sounding board and its associated wires. Then when the door comes to rest, the balls, acted upon by gravity, come back to the wires with considerable force. Here, again, the wire tends to throw the ball away and this action is repeated several'times until all energy has been dissipated from the ball. In this operation, each of the weights 54 is similarly affected so that all strings are set in vibration. As the pendulums are of different lengths, they tend to follow the laws of harmonic motion and, therefore, it is desirable to have the heaviest wires 24 at the lowermost levels. The arrangement produces the greatest blow on the heavier wires and, as their frequency of vibration is lower than the higher tones, the successive blows need to occur less frequently. When so disposed, the various wires will vibrate substantially for the same period.

It will be apparent, it is believed, that swinging the door D in a closing direction will cause substantially the same operation. This two-way action is a distinguishing characteristic of this device. If it is desired to mount my signal unit on a sliding door, it is only necessary to secure the same to the door with the vertical plane of the sounding board at right angles to the direction of movement of the door, as in the case of a swinging door.

It is believed that it will be clearly apparent from the above description and the disclosure in the drawings that the invention comprehends a novel construction of a musical door movement signal.

Having thus disclosed the invention, I claim:

1. A door movement signaling device, comprising: a small resonant box to be secured to one face of a door having walls forming a box-shaped enclosure and including a front sounding board having an air opening communicating with the interior of said box, said box having near its upper margin an outstanding anchor member, a series of supporting strings hanging from said anchor members and a series of pendulum weights on the lower ends of said supporting strings, the supporting strings and pendulum weights being free to swing in the manner of pendulums, said strings being of substantially different lengths with the longest string being at least half again longer than the shortest string whereby substantially different harmonic motions of the weights occur on swinging of the door, said box supporting on its lower portion a series of horizontal musical strings of different pitches each corresponding in level with one of said pendulum weights and means for tensing said musical strings, said pendulum weights being out of contact with said musical strings in static position of the assembly but when swung out of normal position striking said musical strings whereby the weights may swing in movement of the door in either direction and are free to strike repeatedly, said sounding board being in position to reinforce by sympathetic vibration the audible signal produced by the weights striking the musical strings.

2. The subject matter of claim 1 in which said musical strings are positioned with the heavier Weight, lower pitched musical strings in lower position so that the weights supported by longer strings and striking slower heavier blows will strike heavier strings.

3. A door movement signaling device, comprising: a door and a horizontally elongated anchor member supported on one face of said door, a series of supporting strings attached to the anchor member and a series of pendulum weights on the lower ends of said supporting strings, the strings being of different lengths with the longest string substantially double the length of the shortest string whereby substantially different harmonic motions of the weights occur on swinging of the door, said anchor member having a longitudinal top groove and a plurality of transverse kerfs intersecting said longitudinal groove and each supporting string being secured to the anchor member by having at the joinder of one of said kerfs and said groove a knot of a size not to pass therethrough positioned on the upper surface of said anchor member with the remainder of the supporting string extending through the kerf and free to swing in the manner of a pendulum, and a plurality of musical strings of different pitches and means tensing said musical strings supported by said door, each musical string being positioned in the path of travel of one of said pendulum weights to be struck thereby to produce an audible musical signal and the anchor member supporting the weights in position out of contact with the musical strings when the assembly is static whereby the weights may swing in movement of the door in either direction and are free to strike repeatedly.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 515,323 Carswell Feb. 27, 1894 FOREIGN PATENTS 282,901 Germany Mar. 25, 1915 

